JB's adventures...
BIO
Jenna is the Co-Founder, CEO and General Partner at Embedded Ventures, alongside her talented Co-Founder, Jordan Noone.
Launched in 2020, Embedded Ventures is a next generation venture capital firm investing in “Dual-use Space Startups Beyond Launch”. Best described as “the skunkworks of Venture Capital” because of their unique investment approach and backgrounds, Embedded Ventures has a first-of-its-kind partnership with the United States Space Force (USSF)'s SpaceWERX office. The arrangement, established via a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) through the Air Force Research Lab's Technology Transfer Office in New Mexico, enables the two entities to collaborate on research and development opportunities promoting U.S. space industry growth to prepare for the future of an expanded space economy and for the defense of U.S. interests.
In addition to her role at Embedded, Jenna is the Co-Founder of KittyCAD, incubated by Embedded Ventures, they’re the world’s first and only company to build hardware design infrastructure for the internet.
BACKGROUND
Jenna’s professional experience can be described as unique and diverse, spanning entertainment, deep-tech and venture capital. When Jenna, an aspiring dancer, first moved to Los Angeles from Alabama, she started working in recruiting to pay the bills, and unbeknownst to her, it was the start of a tremendously successful career in deep-tech recruiting. Jenna excelled at pairing early-stage startups with the most in-demand engineers in the world, while simultaneously appearing on television shows like Sleepy Hollow on FOX, and The Detour on TBS.
EMBEDDED'S THESIS
Jenna and Jordan’s atypical industry experiences combined with their passion for the communities they represent has served as the thesis of Embedded Ventures, a new option for early-stage, complex tech startups seeking capital – A.K.A. The VC Remix. The firm invests in the pre-seed and seed stage startups focused on space operations, digital engineering, and advanced manufacturing. To date, Embedded Ventures has announced investments in AKASH SYSTEMS, INVERSION SPACE, KITTYCAD, CHROMATIC, SLINGSHOT, & SKYRYSE.
PASSION PROJECTS
Embedded Ventures announced a collaboration in April with the USC Viterbi School of Engineering to reignite Project Payload, a program in which middle school-aged girls will authentically experience what it's actually like to have a career in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) through the design of rockets, payloads, and satellites, along with programming. Participants in Project Payload's summer camp, design, build and launch rockets and high-altitude balloon sensor devices at STARBASE in Los Alamitos, CA.
PERSONAL VALUES
The past does not define the future.
Nonlinear careers are becoming the norm. The tech industry is filled with individuals who are channeling their experiences in various sectors into tech-centric careers. For Jenna, this is by applying the creativity, discipline, and numerous other skills learned in the arts into the work she now does in tech.
There is a longstanding misconception that we are all either “left-brained,” described as leaning towards logic, analysis, and detail-oriented tasks, or “right-brained,” described as approaching tasks more creatively, subjectively, and intuitively. Jenna is outspoken about how this idea limits our potential. Both art and science require a foundation that calls for creativity, curiosity, and experimentation. Her dual pursuit in the arts and tech challenges the status quo and embraces the act of pursuing a life and developing a career that is free of restraints.
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